Cultural Diversity and Early Education Report of a Workshop (1994) / Chapter Skim
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3 What Children Bring to School
3 What Children Bring to School
Pages 17-26
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From page 17... ...
Following the discussion of culturally linked facets of the home environment that affect learning, the workshop participants turned to questions regarding the implications of those facets for what children bring to school and for children's perceptions of school as a familiar or foreign setting. What do children bring with them when they first enter school in the way of 17
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From page 18... ...
As noted by one participant, "It simply means that children will get behind even earlier in their educational careers." Preliteracy and Prenumeracy Experiences Evidence that supports the importance of early exposure to particular learning opportunities derives from studies that compare the achievement levels of children who have and have not been exposed to the beneficial early experiences at home or in preschool that were discussed in the previous chapter conversations about numbers, interactive reading, and decontextualized conversation, for example. Additional evidence, discussed below, derives from intervention studies that provide these experiences and examine subsequent effects on achievement.
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From page 19... ...
Evaluations of both projects have documented significant positive effects on children's literacy development. However, Goldenberg reported that a control group of children who had received very structured, academic instruction in letters, sounds, and how they combine to form words, phrases, and sentences significantly outperformed the children who had received his more informal intervention.
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From page 20... ...
Snow's research suggesting that students can more readily become literate in a second language once literacy has been established in the home language reinforces the importance of adopting a developmental perspective when interpreting bilingual research (Snow, 1992~. The workshop participants raised several additional cautions about the literature on bilingualism as it pertains to preschoolers.
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From page 21... ...
In contrast, language assessments are designed to test actual language proficiency, independent of language use in particular settings. It is also important to distinguish between "social" verbal proficiency with friends from proficiency in the more formal school language tasks of writing, reading, or understanding decontextualized texts.
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From page 22... ...
Barbara Rogoff and Patricia Greenfield, both of whom have worked with a mix of cultural groups within and outside the United States, noted the varying degree to which observational learning, as opposed to explicit teaching through verbal instructions, is relied on in different cultural contexts. Greenfield emphasized the different goals that guide learning in different cultural contexts.
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From page 23... ...
Classrooms that emphasized independent learning and teacher-student exchanges were found to constitute alien environments for these children. When classrooms were restructured to be more compatible with these children's familiar peergroup dynamics (e.g., children working in small, mixed-sex groups in learning centers, with indirect teacher supervision)
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From page 24... ...
Native Hawaiian students, in contrast, are accustomed to overlapping speech, which is interpreted as demonstrating interest and involvement; long wait-times tend to inhibit their participation in instructional activities (White and Tharp, 1988~. Hale-Benson's research on culturally based speech rhythms has identified a "contest" style of speech named call-and-response speech after the patterns found in black music in which black mothers and children volley comments rhythmically back and forth (Hale-Benson, 19901.
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From page 25... ...
SUMMARY Available evidence indicates that children who come to school without exposure to the types of learning opportunities that many teachers take for granted may be at a disadvantage in comparison with children whose preschool experiences accord with teachers' assumptions. Efforts to "catch children up" through various prenumeracy and preliteracy interventions appear to have positive effects on subsequent achievement.
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From page 26... ...
Under some circumstances, consistency across home and school environments may not be desirable. Some degree of complementarily may be desirable and may even be sought deliberately by parents.
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